The Punjab and Haryana High Court has granted divorce to a couple who had been living separately for over three decades, holding that continuing such a relationship would only prolong their suffering.
A Division Bench of Justice Gurvinder Singh Gill and Justice Deepinder Singh Nalwa observed that a marriage loses its essence when spouses choose to live apart for decades without any reconciliation or cohabitation.
“What remains is only a legal bond without any substance. To compel the parties to reside together after such a prolonged separation would be unrealistic and, in fact, would inflict further mental cruelty on both sides,” the Court remarked while dissolving the couple’s marriage solemnized in 1986.
The couple had lived together for only six months before separating. The husband filed for divorce in 1996, but his plea was dismissed by a family court in 1999, and his appeal met the same fate that year. He again approached the court in 2016, but his plea was rejected in 2020. The present order came in the second round of litigation.
The wife, who had left for her parental home in 1987 and permanently moved out in 1994, alleged harassment, miscarriage due to cruelty, and that the husband had contracted a second marriage and fathered two children. She also filed maintenance proceedings and a criminal complaint against him.
The Court, however, noted that the long separation itself proved the marriage had irretrievably broken down. “When a marriage has broken down, has lost all vitality and has become nothing more than a dead formality, insisting upon reunion would not only be futile but would also amount to prolonging the suffering of both the parties,” the Bench said.
While allowing the appeal, the Court set aside the family court’s earlier judgment, dissolved the marriage, and granted the wife liberty to seek permanent alimony before the family court.
Advocate Aman Arora represented the husband, while Senior Advocate Kanwaljit Singh with Advocate Veer Imaan Singh Gill appeared for the wife.
